Scorched Earth (PC) review

"Scorched Earth was a fun little game released for the computer in... Well, who the hell knows when, it was that far back."

Scorched Earth was a fun little game released for the computer in... Well, who the hell knows when, it was that far back. My first exposure to it was in 1994. It's so old that it runs entirely on the DOS platform (Direct Operating System), the predecessor to Windows 3.1.

Scorched Earth doesn't have any story. It's based solely on gameplay, which is against computer controlled drones or fellow players. In that aspect it shines quite well. However, the lack of any semblence of a story does hurt it a little when compared to other games.

In Scorched Earth, your task is to defeat all of the enemy ships. You do this by launching weaponry and other devices that will directly or indirectly attack your enemies. You do the launching from a screen before you attack, which allows you to pick the angle of your shot and the power.

Nearly everything in the game is customizable. There's a huge variety of items to choose from, ranging from bombs to missles to three types of shields and various mud bombs. Each costs money, but you can set how much money you have to spend after each fight. You can also customize the land area you fight in, whether there's walls or not (walls cause shots to bounce), and other fun stuff such as the gravity level.

The gameplay is simple enough to execute, and shouldn't be too mind-boggling. Knowledge in Trig and Geometry definately helps for this game, otherwise it might take you a little time to get used to how everything fires. However, some may find it a bit too tame by today's standards. The graphics are nothing to write home about when compared to some of today's material.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is very fun though. It becomes a challenge to try and outwit your friends. Can you counter their Death Head with a Napalm? Maybe a dirt clod would be better. Force shield or heavy shield? There's so many varations on the game that it can keep you busy for a while.

Graphically, Scorched Earth has almost nothing to offer. Plain VGA color is used. That's only sixteen different colors for those of you counting at home. Some of the weapons used have pretty colors and psychedelic wave movement, but otherwise, it's all very drab, especially the landforms.

There is no sound. Enough said.

Overall, Scorched Earth is a nice little time killer, but in today's market, it's not that fun for long. It's mostly a novelty. You can download Scorched Earth from many Vaporware sites, less than a one megabyte download. But don't pay money for this game.

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